Life Initiating Art

Art for art’s sake has never been the motto at St. Joseph Ballet, the Santa Ana-based company for at-risk youth that celebrates its 15th anniversary with concerts today through Saturday at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

“Obviously, it’s important for artists to explore the formal issues central to moving the frontier of an art form forward,” company founder Beth Burns said in a recent phone interview. “That’s very legitimate. But it’s also legitimate to use art to rediscover our humanity.

“We’ve demonstrated that we do make quite an artistic contribution to the county by the humanity of what we present onstage,” she said. “I think that’s very legitimate material.”

For the raw material that went into one of the three works on the “Quinceanera” anniversary program, Burns looked close to home.

“I want the dance to come from what’s inside young people,” she said.

In the case of her new “Unearthing,” the process started last summer, when about 40 of her dancers went to a retreat at Cal State Los Angeles, where, they worked with two Mexican American psychologists.

“They worked with them three hours every morning, looking at how they’re pulled by two different cultures, different spheres--within a family, peers or what are societal-wide expectations,” Burns said.

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From the stories that emerged, she shaped the new work.

“We wanted to pick stories that were emblematic of the issues the kids are dealing with but also emblematic of some cultural realities these kids are dealing with,” Burns said. “That became the spine of the piece.”

The title reflects its origins: “The idea is about what we unearth from within us.”

The 30-minute work has six sections and will be danced by 33 dancers.

The piece starts with Sabina Lira, a 17-year-old who has been with the company for more than seven years. She’ll speak of family get-togethers in Mexico, which usually ended with people telling stories around a fire.

“The fire becomes a basic image in the ballet,” Burns said.

Similarly, a Mexican blanket, which Lira also talks about, becomes a leitmotif.

“It’s a recurring image of the comfort and shelter that a family can provide,” Burns said. “Then we go through a number of different scenarios. Kids talk about different experiences they have in their family settings. Some are tender; one is quite light, but in the final scene, Sabina returns and talks about the larger family of humanity.

“So the whole ballet doesn’t just look at our nuclear families for identity. If we did that, some people perhaps wouldn’t rise above some things that are broken within the family unit. All of us, even if we lived in happy nuclear families, still find our identity by broadening our definition of family in a deeper way.”

Eduardo del Barrio, who wrote music for Burns’ “Talitha Koum” in 1995, is the composer.

“His music is compelling, really rich, really emotional,” Burns said. “We commissioned the score and, because it’s in the theater, it’s a combination of a taped score, but he’s also playing live. He’s a pianist, and he’s going to be improvising to the dancers.”

Other artists involved include Frank Romero, a Los Angeles visual artist, and Berkeley-based Kate Edmunds, who collaborated on the sets, and lighting designer James F. Ingalls, who has worked with Mark Morris, Peter Sellars and Helgi Tomasson at San Francisco Ballet.

“What makes this special--that’s such an overused word, but it’s true--is to have artists and designers of that caliber start a process a year in advance, listening to young people, listening to their experiences and basing their designs and their artistic work on that,” she said.

“Quinceanera” (Spanish for a 15th-birthday celebration) also will include “By Being Who I Am,” which premiered last year, and “Mi Corazon Canta” (My Heart Sings), both by Burns. All the pieces will be danced to live music.

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Burns also is busy with a previously announced $7.5-million capital campaign to move to new studios and expand her program. She says she needs the new facility--a site near Bowers Museum that will quintuple the company’s space--because the troupe is bursting at the seams.

“Yesterday, I had some rehearsals actually in my office,” Burns said. Another rehearsal was taking place “out on the patio, overlooking 4th Street, because there were so many classes going on in the studios. That’s how badly we need a new facility. The work continues to grow and deepen.”

* The St. Joseph Ballet will dance Beth Burns’ “Unearthing,” “Mi Corazon Canta” and “By Being Who I Am” at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive. 8 p.m. today through Friday, 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday. $10-$30. (949) 854-4646.